No, this is not another article about tree rings, hockey sticks, and rewritten history, although that is one tree in the climate forest.
A group of scientists dismissed historical evidence and misled the public about temperature trends. Some dismiss their actions as bad science, but the evidence, particularly exposed in the leaked e-mails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU), indicate differently. Many, including those claiming to be climate scientists were misled because they were experts on another tree in another part of the forest. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is not studying climatology, but specialists looking at some very limited components of an extremely complex system.
We live in a generalized world in an age of specialization. These problems are manifesting themselves more and more as the world systems break down into increasingly small pieces. It used to be there were general rules with exceptions to the rule – now everything is an exception. The problem is evident in the misuse of specialized knowledge by climate scientists. Using tree rings as representing temperature is a classic example.
Thanks for the link to Tim Ball’s site. The psychology of scientific investigations is an intriguing study of the observed and the observer:
The attention of the observer is (can be) controlled by distractions
a.) Reality TV shows,
b.) Gladiator sports,
c.) Headlines, video games, porn, and
d.) Gambling and mood-altering drugs.
The tendency to bias observations is natural
a.) The pupils open wider in poor light to see better,
b.) To see what moves and overlook what doesn’t,
c.) To selectively see what we’re looking for, and
d.) To block observations that diminish our sense of control
The most obvious bias in the AGW story is the attempt to overlook the fountain of energy that Copernicus discovered at the center of the Solar System in 1543:
http://tinyurl.com/7qx7zxs
This is my outline of the concurrent rise and fall of scientific reasoning and respect for the dignity of mankind in recent history:
1543: The Rise of Reason and Human Dignity
1945: The Return of Dogmatic Totalitarianism
http://omanuel.wordpress.com/about/
With kind regards,
Oliver K. Manuel
Former NASA Principal
Investigator for Apollo
Summary:
History shows that Reality (Truth, God) must be accepted with humility and gratitude
1100 B.C.-1000 B.C. “Who is this that defies Reality (Truth, God)?” David to Goliath [I Samuel 17]
1543 Copernicus discovers a “fountain of energy” at the core of the Solar System.
http://tinyurl.com/7qx7zxs
1633 Tyranny and science collide at the Trial of Galileo
http://tinyurl.com/3tn6wz7
1905 Albert Einstein reports that mass (m) is stored energy (E), E = mc^2. Thus, in the fountain of energy, m => E.
http://tinyurl.com/8hays
1915 Niels Bohr discovers that atoms consist of light-weight, negatively charged (-) electrons orbiting a massive core, positively charged (+) nucleus, in the same way that lightweight planets like Earth orbit the massive Sun.
http://tinyurl.com/6mhbgas
Aug 1945 Energy (E) released from the cores of uranium and plutonium atoms destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
Oct 1945 Frightened world leaders establish the United Nations to save themselves and society from the danger of destruction in “nuclear fires.”
Post-1945 Constitutional limits on government and every major field of science had been compromised by the time Climategate emails and documents were released in 2009 exposing the plot to reestablish world tyranny.